Something in the bible that has never ceased to grab my
attention is the working together of Old Testament shadows with the New Testament realities. What do I mean by
this? Listen to the Saviour’s words in the days when He walked the earth: “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the
manna in the wilderness, and are dead… I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this
bread, he will live forever.” True, there was value in the manna that fell in Moses’ day, but it paled in comparison to the living manna, who would not only give life to the outer man but also to the spirit man – one manna being but a shadow of the Real yet to come. Also, in the time before Christ, God’s people gathered to worship in temples made by hands. We still join together in such places today. However,
what has been made by hands will never be of more significance than the new and living temple, formed by none but the One on high. It’s a New Day! We can go on and on with antiquated statutes, provisions, and ordinances of all types.
But let me ask this. Do you feel that our Father in heaven took any real interest in the blood of sacrificial animals? I think not. It was only meant to point us ahead to a greater day, as were all other things of Old Testament times. The manna; the temple; the endless flow of the shed blood of animals through the centuries. These and so many more such things, from a distant world of long ago, were simply given to guide us along the way and to eventually unfold final truths.
We’ve heard of them referred to as pictures and types and foreshadows.

Consider this. When He commanded the ancients to rest one day in seven, this rest was never meant to be an end in itself. His eye was on a greater day; and the full unfolding of His plan for His people would speak of a greater rest. It’d be a rest to far surpass a rest for the flesh , and then for more than a mere twenty-four hours a week. This rest would be an eternal rest, not for the first man of the earth, but for the second man born from above.

But there is so much that has changed, or maybe we should say, that has become magnified, from
the time of the Old Testament, up to the resurrection of Christ; for instance, there’s the role of the prophet. Once only certain men were designated to function in this capacity, and for the most
part the Spirit would do no more than come upon them. This was but for a time, while they would write or speak of things to come. When the Holy Spirit served the intended purpose, He would then depart. Not so in the day in which we live. Today every child of God has become His
prophet; to add, a prophet is now one who simply professes truth relating to the One True Supreme Being. Granted, no two believers will ever serve in this office in the very same manner and to the same degree. Nevertheless, all who profess Him speak as His prophets. Another thing to consider is that in the New Day in which we live, the Spirit doesn’t leave us after working through us, but contrariwise He’ll fill our spirit man through all eternity. And so, He’ll not merely rest upon us any longer, but abide within forever. Still, it doesn’t end there. Before Christ had come, that select few who spoke living words as oracles of God, did so as servants. We today do not tell of the Most High as His servants, but as His very offspring. Yes, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence within. There He gives birth to the dead – a spirit that has long been lifeless. It is a birth that truly makes us children of our Father in heaven. And so, the people of faith have risen from servants under Moses, to sons under Jesus Christ. Paul speaks of the great difference between the two positions in his letter to the Galatians.

By Jesus’ return back to the Father all has been made complete. Yet in the time preceding His
visitation to our world all things were simply in part. Do you remember of how each year one man was chosen out of Israel’s priesthood to serve as high priest for that year? During this period he would enter the holy of holies but a single time – and not without blood – as the scripture
states. This blood only served to cover the sins of the nation, but just until the same ritual was repeated over again in its designated season. On and on the practice continued, along with
multiple other types of practices. Yet by their endless repetitions nothing had ever changed. But when Jesus shouted aloud with the cry of a warrior upon the drawing of His last breath, the way into the most holy place became opened wide – opened to every believer so that each one may now have access to God, to know, love, and serve Him there always. That fierce rending of the curtain speaks to us today of the tearing away of the flesh of Christ, the One Way to the
Father. This occurrence changed our relationship with the Triune God forever.
Now these words have been spoken to us: “Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is Christ.” Today, that which was in part has been swept away; the shadows have passed. Now all has been made whole and every bit complete in Jesus Christ, who has not to do
with the shadows, but only with the Real; and He is all that we need. In Him,
as the scripture states, is hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It’s another way of saying that all things pertaining to God lie only in the Son. And there they wait to be discovered by the heirs of the kingdom.


In the Old Testament, even people served as types and pictures of the Real – the Real, who would come in a New Day. One example is Abraham. Who was he? He was a type; he was a representation. Abraham would serve as a forerunner to a great people, who would come into being long after his day. Great they would be both in essence and in number. They would be the church. But how was Abraham a forerunner of God’s present-day people? First of all, like us, he was not under the law. It hadn’t yet come. To add, he was instructed by his Maker to walk by faith. Does it sound familiar? Paul the apostle stressed over and over to the early church that they were not under the law. Furthermore, he told them that they would be saved through faith, and in faith would their walk in the Lord be; all of this just like our father Abraham. However, the law was needed following the time of Abraham. The main purpose for this was to show that such a great salvation could never be earned by the keeping of its statutes. Painfully we’d need to learn to put our faith in another, who would satisfy God through the law on our behalf. In this we were humbled, acknowledging what Paul once wrote: “ Within our flesh dwells no good thing.” And so, once again – who was Abraham? He was the foreshadower of every New Testament believer. He would be multiplied many millions of times over throughout the New Testament age. Yet the work in him was only in part, for he lacked the abiding Spirit within, and therefore the entire new birth. Yet in Christ the work has been made complete, though for now, as it were just in vessels of clay. Now let’s turn to the man, Melchizedek, the man of mystery. The bible speaks of him as being both a king and a priest. This is remarkable. No one man was to serve as both king and priest – not any man having to do with Israel. And the scriptures don’t exactly make his identity clear to us. But there is something that is even more important than his identity. It has to do with his purpose. This side of heaven we may never know the entirety of his purpose. However, one thing we can be sure of is that, besides his coming to prefigure the Son of God, he’d serve also as a forerunner to all who would later be born of the Spirit. And so, he like Abraham would be duplicated countless times. Yet how is it that we have been fashioned after him? We can begin with the fact that Melchizedek was a king; to add, he was a priest. Understanding this, we can see first that he was royalty. And the born again one, who has been given birth by the King of all creation, by way of His Spirit – are we not royalty? Moreover, the man of mystery was also a priest. But in this matter, has not the Lord Jesus done away with the great veil that once separated the holy place from the innermost sanctuary? No longer is the way closed. Now all may enter as beloved priests of the Most High God. Therefore today, in the final writing of the scriptures, we can read, “ We have been made a nation of kings and priests unto our God.” And so, within every vessel of faith there will always be found the Spirit of Melchizedek, a foreshadower, leading us in the way of our eternal calling.

Lastly there were our first parents. Surely Adam and Eve were forerunners for every soul to be set apart for salvation. Once their world knew not a single flaw; there was no defect, frailty, inadequacy, or vulnerability of any sort. The only test lied in them. And we’ve all heard of the outcome. Yet prior to the fall, all creation was every bit whole. The environment in which they
walked would have surely surpassed our imaginations. The air they breathed - the things they saw – the sounds they heard – will never be captured on the big screen. That’s because Hollywood with all of its resources could never summons the Spirit of the Most High God, who filled that world through and through. But even that place, in all of its beauty and wonder, was pointing ahead to a land that would one day overshadow even it.

“Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God...’ “Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new…’ “And the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light…And he showed me a pure river of the
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb… And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face. There shall be no night there: They need no
lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”

From a garden in Paradise to a celestial and eternal city. Our first parents once lived in a
world of peace, rest, wonder, and great joy. Tragically, their world was lost. And so God would do a greater thing in a land surpassing theirs, so that in it we together with them should one day be made perfect. Adam and Eve – Melchizedek – Abraham. The first looks ahead to the most glorious environment we’ll ever know. The next tells of the honor bestowed upon every child of God our Father. And the last portrays pure hearts of faith in Him forever. Still, the law needed to
come between the time of these forerunners and the church of a future day. Then we’d nderstand that His never-ending kingdom wouldn’t become our inheritance by the mastering of His
ordinances. If that were the case, we would feel deserving of a world so undeserved by mere mortals. But to the contrary, we’d need to realize that it was the gift of God, not worked for, but a gift. For if we could work for life eternal, it nullifies payment made by the Son on our behalf. And so, following the Old Testament types and figures from that ancient world of long ago, of whom actually there were many, there had to come the law. It was imperative that it come into rule, so that we the church would truly know that eternal salvation could only be ours by the pure, unfailing mercies of God.

The foreshadowers of old pointed out the way, that we should excel beyond the places to which they were brought - their numerous shadows directing us towards the Real. Concerning this, a thought came to me one day. Suddenly I saw that all of it can be likened to a simple child’s
puzzle. We’ve all seen one. There is a small board on which the outlines of its pieces can be seen. Then there are the pieces themselves. Prior to our Lord’s coming to earth, all that believers had was the board without the pieces, nothing more than a likeness of them. But God has provided a better thing for us, as the writer of Hebrews puts it; the better thing being the pieces themselves. Still, we struggle with how it all fits together. But the apostle Paul explained to us why this is. He said that now we see as in a mirror dimly. However, there’ll come the Day when He wipes the mirror clean. Then we will know even as we are known. Now there are no more questions;
now there are no more doubts; all fears, mistrust, and uncertainty have been put to rest for all time. For from out of Eden has come the kingdom of God. From out of the Old has come the New and all of the pieces have been set in place. The first creation has been delivered into the fullness of its redemption, even as it will be with all of the children of God. Praise be to the
One who sits upon the throne.


- J. Pecoraro